David A. Mittell: I remember Fidel

David A. Mittell

Friday

Feb 22, 2008 at 12:01 AMFeb 22, 2008 at 9:22 PM

I was in the 10th grade and in a sense it was the first political meeting I ever covered. I have saved my reporter’s notebook for 49 years. On April 25, 1959, Premier Fidel Castro came to Harvard to address the Harvard Law School Forum.

I was in the 10th grade and in a sense it was the first political meeting I ever covered. I have saved my reporter’s notebook for 49 years. On April 25, 1959, Premier Fidel Castro came to Harvard to address the Harvard Law School Forum.

It was quite a scene. Since the law school did not have a hall large enough to hold the anticipated crowd, the meeting was held outdoors in front of Dillon Field House, overlooking the open end of Harvard Stadium. A huge crowd (Wikipedia says it was 10,000) gathered on pavement and grass while the dignitaries gathered on a platform extending Dillon’s balcony, one story above the crowd. The first dignitaries to emerge were bearded men in combat fatigues. They would come out, look furtively around, then dart back inside the field house.

At length, McGeorge Bundy, the Forum’s moderator, emerged. Bundy was the clean-shaven, fair-haired Dean of Harvard College who two years later would be a Castro nemesis as President Kennedy’s National Security Advisor.

“Members of the faculty” Bundy began. The audience booed. “Distinguished guests” More booing. “Members of the audience” Rapturous applause, with those who had lain down rising in spontaneous tribute to themselves. They were in a great mood.

Finally, Premier Castro emerged onto the balcony with several of his comrades. This was four months after he had marched into Havana and two years before he would openly declare himself to be a Marxist-Leninist. His audience was rapturous, and his gift for oratory (he spoke in English) was enhanced by the fact that, not yet being the dictator he would become, he couldn’t speak for six hours. He was allotted about 90 minutes, including a question period.

The questions, which news accounts later said had been planted, were answered in platitudes.

From my notes: “Without bread, there is no freedom; without freedom, there is no bread.”

“Power is a sacrifice, not a pleasure.”

“The revolution that doesn’t have enemies is not really a revolution at all.”

Finally Dr. Castro (as the Law School Forum program had introduced him) was asked why accused counterrevolutionaries who had been tried and acquitted were being retried (and often executed). He replied that convicted defendants have the right to appeal.

“Don’t the people have the right to appeal, too?”

For the first time, and to its credit, the unruly audience on the grass booed him.